Institute for global history unveiled at Shandong University

The Institute for Global and Transnational History (IGTH) is unveiled at Shandong University in Jinan on Sunday. Photo by Zhao Ruixue/chinadaily.com.cn

More than 40 historical study experts attended the opening ceremony of the Institute for Global and Transnational History (IGTH) at Shandong University in Jinan, East China's Shandong province on Sunday.

Following the opening ceremony, the experts from universities including Princeton University, University of Paris 1, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University exchanged opinions on theories and practices of global and transnational history studies.

"Global history is the study of what has already become or is becoming global, local accommodation and resistance to the global, and the tensions and interactions between these interactive processes," said James Lee, dean of Humanities and Social Science School of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and also the director of the just opened IGTH.

Lee said the IGTH of Shandong University is important because with the recent rise of China, what is currently local may also become global and because the transnational perspectives on China global studies distinguishes global Chinese history from Chinese national history and in so doing what makes Shandong University not just a world class university but a university of the world.

Hu Jinyan, deputy head of SDU, said the IGTH is set to develop into a world class high-end platform and think tank for global and transnational history studies within ten years by integrating SDU's academic resources and cooperating with other universities and institutes.

Compulsory and elective courses on global and transnational history studies will be set for SDU students.

The institute will enroll two to three doctoral students and three to five postgraduates every year to major in global and transnational history studies.

French historian Serge Gruzinski who won the inaugural International Prize of History at the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences last August is employed as the honorary director of the IGTH for his pioneering work on questions of global and transnational history.

zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn